It was a great joy to welcome back Dr. Richard Beck, who asked us to consider Jesus’ encounter with a leper in which the “unclean” man was met with a love that reached across boundaries; an encounter in which the promise of relationship preceded healing. We’re called to name the places of disgust and contempt that lead us to create an other, and ask God to help change our hearts into a radically different way of loving.
Text
Mark 1: 38-41
Hebrews 13: 13
Reflection & Practice
Reflect honestly on the groups or individuals whom you view with contempt; that you consider in any way inferior, beyond hope, and from whom you detach and avoid? Pause in a time of silent confession, asking God to meet you in that place and to soften your heart.
Think back to a time that you went “outside the camp”, or a time that someone else went outside their camp to meet you with compassion. Was there a shift in a relationship or circumstance? Did it create anything new inside you? Ask God in prayer to offer you an opportunity to do so again, and enter into this week open to obedience when that opportunity is presented.
Worship Set
Awake My Soul
All Creatures Of Our God And King
Dust We Are And Shall Return
God With Us
Good To Me
Even My Darkness